


The Adventure of the Red Square

by JudithBK



Category: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Accent, False Friends, FanTALES, Foreign Language, French, German, final obstruent devoicing, intercomprehension, language learning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 05:18:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12952158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JudithBK/pseuds/JudithBK
Summary: A man uses a candle to send signals to a mysterious woman. But what do they mean?





	The Adventure of the Red Square

When we returned to Mrs. Warren's rooms, the gloom of a London winter evening had thickened into one gray curtain, a dead monotone of colour, broken only by the sharp yellow squares of the windows and the blurred haloes of the gas-lamps. As we peered from the darkened sitting-room of the lodging-house, one more dim light glimmered high up through the obscurity.

"Someone is moving in that room," said Holmes in a whisper, his gaunt and eager face thrust forward to the window-pane. "Yes, I can see his shadow. There he is again! He has a candle in his hand. Now he is peering across. He wants to be sure that she is on the lookout. Now he begins to flash. Take the message also, Watson, that we may check each other. A single flash--that is A, surely. Now, then. How many did you make it? Twenty. So did I. That should mean T. AT--that's intelligible enough. Another T. Surely this is the beginning of a second word. Now, then--TENTA. Dead stop. That can't be all, Watson? ATTENTA gives no sense. Nor is it any better as three words AT, TEN, TA, unless T. A. are a person's initials. There it goes again! What's that? ATTE--why, it is the same message over again. Curious, Watson, very curious. Now he is off once more! AT--why he is repeating it for the third time. ATTENTA three times! How often will he repeat it? No, that seems to be the finish. He has withdrawn from the window. What do you make of it, Watson?"

"A cipher message, Holmes."

My companion gave a sudden chuckle of comprehension. "And not a very obscure cipher, Watson," said he. 

"Why, of course, it is German! He signals "Attentat! Attentat! Attentat!", An *Attentat* is an assassination attack! It makes complete sense! He warns her of impending danger!"

But, dear Watson, why should he leave off the final "t"? This can happen once, but here it happened three times?" Holmes asked, smirking. 

"What else could it be, Holmes?"

"You are correct in so far as you assume that this man is German. But it is not German he is using. The woman's beauty and elegance belie this idea... She is, naturally, French, and he signals her to wait, in her refuge of safety! That is why he signals "Attends! Attends! Attends!". But his rough German accent and his lack of learning have perverted the original spelling of the imperative! Have you not noticed how Germans always turn the "d"s to "t"s at the end of words?"

"I believe you have hit it, Holmes!"

"Not a doubt of it. It is a very urgent message, thrice repeated to make it more so. But wait for what? I guess the only way to find out is to go back to Bakerstreet and to wait for a bit ourselves. Let's go, Watson!"


End file.
